The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-06-06
The Kingdom of God.

Second Presbyterian tnurch yesterday morn
| ing. His text was "Thy Kingdom Come"-Matt.
! vi, TO- 1--WE cannot understand the significance
of this prayer" said DIR. Mcleod, ''nor we
offer it intelligently. unless we have clear idea
of what Christ here means by Fathers
| kingdom. Let us, therefore. at the outset, ask:
What is this kingdom, for the coming of which
our Lord has taught us to prays The
| kingdom of God and the kingdom
| of heaven are phrases that very
! frequently IN the New Testament. and,
| moreover. they fell quite often from Ch-lsts
| own lips From the beginning of His public
| ministry-when He came into Galilee preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God. until it's close
| when He said: i VIII not drink OF the fruit
of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come.
| All through His earthly life the affairs OF the
| kingdom lay very close to His heart He thought
| about it, and talked about it, and preached about
| it. and prayed about 1t continually. lie IN
/ folded its meaning in parallels. He used Illus
| tration after illustration to show its
| duration In order to enter this KING
| dom. He taught that one must
| have the spirit and the faith of little child.
/ He loved Gods kingdom, and He still loves 1t
| with all His heart. For it He lived and still
lives. For it He died, and rose again and ascend
| ed to glory; nor will He rest satisfied until It
reaches its great contamination when 1t Will come
! in all its power and glory, and when the great
| voices in heaven will say: The Kingdoms of this
! world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and
| of His Christ and He shall reign forever and
| ever
| at is we'll, however, to bear in mind that this
| phrase. the kingdom of God the kingdom
| os heaven does not always mean precisely
/ the thing Sometimes IL refers to the
| Christian dispensation, when, for example,
! John, tho Baptist, and also our Lord began to
| preach saying: Repent. for the kingdom of
| heaven is at hand Sometimes, again, it refers
| TO the visible church, as in the parable of the
| tares and of the net This is the kingdom of
| God indeed in its most perfect form, for
| there Judas among the twelve. tares
| have evermore been found among the wheat. and
bad AH,-~
| found we'll the good. Again, Lord
sometimes used this phrase to represent the
Kingdom OF grace in nth, the heart %, of
| Pharisees demanded of Him when the kingdom
| of God should come, His answer was: The king
| dom of God cometh not with observation, for
| behold the kingdom of God is within YOU OF
| like import are these words OF the apostle: The
kingdom of God is not meat and drink. but
righteousness, and peace, and Joy in the Holy
| Ghost Again, By the kingdom of God or the
kingdom of heaven is sometimes meant the king
dom of clory-that state and that place which
Christ has gone to prepare for His people, and
where amid the beatitudes of heaven, they shall
be forever with the Lord. II to this
kingdom of glory that Lord referred
when lie described the last judgment. The
Son of man, He Gays, will come in his glory and
| will sit upon the throne of His glory and being
then recognized by the whole universe as the
King OF glory, He wlll.sa to His redeemed ones
Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world 1t is but right to add that there
a few devout and God fearing Christians who
believe and who teach that this phrase, the
kingdom of Cod sometimes means an earthly
and visible kingdom. which will be established
By Christ at His second coming and over which
He will reign for a millennium. They look for
HIS coming and they pray for His coming, hav-
ing this object mainly in view. They believe
that upon the general resurrection, and upon the
judgment day. Christ will come to this world
and establish a kingdom, of which Jerusalem
shall be the center, and where, with His saints,
He will live and reign for thousand years.
This view of the kingdom, as l read the Script
ures, is more at best, than pous specua
tion II has for it's basis too literal interpreta-
ton of prophecy and of poetry. 1t is the view
of Messiah's kingdom to which the Jews then
clung, and to which many of them cling even
unto this day. 1t is the view that held by
the apostles until they learned moro fully what
is the mind of the Spirit II Is view in
which the wish seems to be the father
of the thought At all events, it is a view of the
kingdom of God which is commonly regarded as
extra biblical, and which the great body OF the
Christian church has never been willing TO adopt.
Now, when pray. THY kingdom come
what is it that we wish2 What, precisely. do
want God to do2 L suppose there not
many, if, indeed, there be any of us, whose
chief desire when offer this prayer Is that
Christ should come back to world, and
build the temple and the city of Jerusalem,
and there erect His throne, and. from
that as center, exercise dominion
over all the nations of the earth. Whatever
be the nature of His kingdom, this is not the
conception that most of have had in mind
when have offered this PRAYER. Rather,
sure, have we been thinking of the spread of
CnrlSL 8 gOSpel. OF the Increase anu the influence
of His church; of the interests of His religion of
the silent but spiritual and righteous authority
which He exercises over the hearts and con-
sciences of men; of that kingdom which is not
meat and drink. but righteousness, and peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost; of that glorious time
when ali the ends of the earth will see the saliva
ton of our God, and when amid
the hallelujahs of the redeemed, He
will be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords.
This being the case, it IS obvious that the king
dom of God is kingdom of vast dimensions.
But whether regard it as the gospel dispen-
satou. the visible church. the empire of
grace In Christian heart. or the heaven of the
holy into which nothing that is unclean can ever
enter-from whatever point OF view we look at
it, it is still the same kingdom. And when from
our hearts we say Thy kingdom come, We pray
that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed, and that
the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves
and others brought into it, and kept in it; and
that the kingdom Of glory may be FASTENED.
The kingdom of God, from whatever point
of view we look at it, is spiritual Kingdom. Its
King is spiritual. Its subjects are spiritual. Its
laws spiritual That is to say. it differs
from all earthly kingdoms, both respects its
origin, its authority, its means of growth, and
it's ultimate object. My kingdom says Christ,
is not of this world Christ, the
King, rules the mind. the heart, the
affections Of His subjects The laws of
this kingdom are designed to mold the thoughts.
the feelings, the needs, the conduct, in fact the
whole life of those who como under their juris
diction. They have accomplished much in this
direction, and they will certainly accomplish
yet more and more. This prayer has not been
offered in vain. The kingdom has grown. and it
is still growing. 1t has come to multitudes, and
it is still coming. and it will continue to come
until the end of time.
II suppose when our Lord taught His disciples
to offer this prayer He had in mind more partic-
ularly the increase and growth of His kingdom.
and this in order to the salvation of
souls. Outside of this kingdom there
is salvation, hence He would have pray
earnestly and constantly for the conversion of
sinners and for the spread of truth and righteous
ness.
The means by which this kingdom has grown
and will continue to grow prove it to be indeed
tine kingdom of God. Its growth is from within.
Its seed is in itself. From the smallest begin
ninCs IL has come to be the mightiest of king
donls. Aud told that of the increase of
HIS government and peace there shall be end
upon the throne of David and upon His kingdom
to order it and to establish il with Judgment
and with justice from henceforth, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.